ST KILDA has set itself the task of raiding the competition's northern clubs of their brightest young stars, CEO Matt Finnis says.
While the draft will provide the key building blocks for turning the club around, the Saints understand the need to be "ruthless" in the rapidly changing landscape of free agency.
Finnis said the Saints were prepared to pay talented players 'overs' (more than their market value) to attract them to the club.
"If there's players coming out of contract over the next couple of years, we'll be in that," Finnis told SEN radio on Saturday.
"We'll be after those players. We'll be wanting to bring (those) people into our club.
"We'll have the room in our salary cap to do that."
With some of the club greats set to retire in the next couple of years, including Nick Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes and Leigh Montagna, Finnis said St Kilda needed to be innovative to help turn their fortunes around.
"We'll be ruthless. We'll be creative and we won't die wondering," Finnis said.
"I think absolutely we'll be in that space in the next couple of years."
As revealed by AFL.com.au on Friday, the bottom-of-the-ladder Saints have recently completed a mid-season review as they try to advance up the ladder under first-year coach Alan Richardson.
Finnis sees the biggest improvements coming in player development and recruiting, with more resources and a greater spread of responsibilities required to bolster those key areas.
Development coach Simon McPhee is also coach of the Saints’ VFL affiliate Sandringham, and Finnis said the club need to do a better job of utilising their resources to greater effect.
Lindsay Gilbee, Paul Hudson and Peta Searle also assist in development roles.
"We've actually got to build out the support we put behind these people, so that we accelerate their development," Finnis said.
"We can't be a club that has the least resources in our academy, we've got to have the most resources.
"My focus is to determine how we are actually supporting the development of these young people that we're bringing into the club."
